- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
I make fresh all the time at work and it is a real pain in the rear without a proper juicer (even with one). I will go through cases of lemons just to make a five gallon container (usually 1.5 to 2 cases depending on the juiciness of the lemons). It's really good, but most of the time I really can't tell the difference. You might think about making the frozen and floating some fresh lemon in it (without the rine).
I think you could do a compromise - I have a fresh lemonde recipe that is SUPER easy - the quick cheat is using lemon juice already squeeze in a bottle rather than squeezing the lemons yourself. I use this recipe all the time and people LOVE it. Here it is:
Perfect Lemonade from simplyrecipes.com
Makes: 2 qt or ~ 1.8 L
3/4 c sugar
1 c. water
1 c. lemon juice (or juice of 4-6 lemons)
3-4 cups cold water to dilute
1. Make syrup - heat sugar and 1 c. water in a saucepan to dissolve sugar
2. add lemon juice and syrup to pitcher. Add 3-4 c. cold water. Refrigerate 30-40 min. Add more lemon juice if you find it is too sugary for your taste (I find it is just right)
3. Serve with ice and sliced lemons (or mint!)
This recipe could easily be modified to make lemonade for a large group, and you can see it is speedy - the longest part is dissovling the sugar to make the syrup and then cooling it in the fridge!
Good luck!
@Valhalla - THANK YOU! I was really leery of the idea of trying to squeeze all those lemons, but this should be the perfect compromise. I was wondering if you could make lemonade with just regular lemon juice, but couldn't find anything online. This is totally what I'm going to do. Thanks!
Another vote for fresh! We get the fresh stuff that they make in Whole Foods (although I only know of one location where they brew it on-premise in the city) and I will never go back to the from-concentrate stuff, even if it's organic.
We thought about making homemade, but I bought Paul Newman's for my daughter's wedding reception last year. Yummy and didn't have to worry about another DIY!!! :)
I second using bottled lemon juice. I do
1C lemon juice
1C sugar
3C water
shake
Crazy question, but could you hire a fresh lemonade stand? You know like the ones you see at fairs where they make them on the spot and put the half a lemon in your cup? That would be AWESOME!!!!
I love the compromise recipe, and I also vote for fresh if you have the time to do it! I think it would also taste better. :)
Fresh is best! I learned from the Amish to simply squueze a lemon (per serving), add some sugur, mix with ice water. That's it!
Fresh is great but If you end up going with frozen concentrate, you might want to use Minute Maid Premium. Cooks Illustrated rated it higher than Minute Maid's unfrozen version, Nantucket Nectars, Odwalla, Tropicana and a couple of others. Seems like a promising review.
Here's the link, though you may need a membership to view it: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/results.asp?docid=10010
correct me if I am wrong, but what if you bought it from Chik Fil A ? not sure where you are from or if you heve them, but im pretty sure they make their lemonade and sweet tea fresh and they do sell them in gallons.
I was wondering about the same thing; we're having a lemonade and iced-tea bar for the non-drinkers. I'm going to try the compromise recipe for my sweetie's upcoming birthday for a practice run. Thank you!!
I definitely vote for fresh, it's deeeeefinitely the sort of thing you can tell a difference in imo--and it's all about the fresh squeezed lemons, the rest of it doesn't matter! Sugar is sugar whether it was in a can or boiled in the morning of. Those fresh, just squeezed lemons are what make it. There's got to be somewhere that makes it fresh in your area. I would do some quick hunting and see if you can place an order!
I think the idea of fresh lemonade sounds good, but do you really want to be making a bunch of lemonade the day before your wedding? It sounds like one of those details no one will care about in the future. I mean, do you really expect anyone to look back on your wedding and go "Well so-and-so had a lovely wedding but I can't believe the lemonade wasn't fresh"??? Go with concentrate, it's easier and cheaper and definately not worth the hassle to go fresh.
I definitely vote for fresh, but honestly, both the Newman's Own and the Simply Lemonade (both sold at most grocery stores) taste fantastic. I would use one of those over a frozen concentrate, because - IMO - they always taste too sugary or chemical-ly.
If you plan to make your own using bottled juice, you might try to find the Santa Cruz Organics bottled lemon juice (I don't know where you live, but I know they sell it at Whole Foods) - it tastes very much like fresh-squeezed lemons, unlike the "real lemon"/plastic green bottle stuff you get at most stores - that stuff always tastes like straight up chemicals to me.
HOWEVER, I think it is important that all of us remember (we are going through this with wine decisions for our very casual pizza and beer welcome dinner right now) that people are going to be excited to be at your wedding, and thrilled that you have lemonade. They are not going to judge. (Or if they do, that's a separate post...)
I cheat at home and parties and cook outs all the time and plan to do the same thing that my wedding well simply because it is easier and it is tasty and well it is cheaper.
I use the country time lemonade drink mix... mix it up... add a little sugar... then i sqeeze in about 3 fresh lemons per gallon and throw in some sliced up to make it looks more original lol... usually everyone loves it and while it is not quiet as delicious as 100% fresh lemonade... it is probably the closest tasting I have had to it
I actually prefer all my juices from concentrate. I have no idea why, but I can definitely tell. I've sent lemonade back at resteraunts because it was fresh squeezed. I know I'm weird.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| Lyndzo | 52 |
| Brielle | 43 |
| This Time Round | 38 |
| Future Mrs K | 35 |
| mypinkshoes | 34 |
| his chippymunk | 34 |
| Cady | 32 |
| fivemonthsnotice | 32 |
| TheLionQueen | 31 |
| AshleyR83 | 30 |
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| andielovesj | 5 |
| DeeVine1217 | 5 |
| beargoose | 4 |
| AshleyR83 | 4 |
| fishbone | 4 |
 Jamcnair |
3 |
| his chippymunk | 3 |
| ana77 | 3 |
| mightywombat | 2 |
| dkeller30 |
2 |
We're serving beer, wine, and sangria at my wedding. For the non-drinkers in the crowd, we're also going to provide lemonade and canned soda.
I'm now debating between making the lemonade from frozen concentrate (easy version), or making it fresh, the day before the wedding. Time will be of the essence at that point, but I can't help but think how delicious it would be to serve fresh lemonade with mint at the reception. (I have officially lost my mind!)
What would you do?